Vistra Brings Online its 1200 MWh Battery Storage System in California

Vistra has announced its 1200 MWh Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility was successfully connected to the power grid and has begun operation.

Vistra has announced that its Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility was successfully connected to the power grid and began operating on December 11, 2020. At 300 MW/ 1200 MWh, the lithium-ion battery storage system, located on-site at Vistra’s Moss Landing Power Plant in Monterey County, California, will be the largest of its kind in the world. 

Furthermore, the firm also announced that construction is already underway on Phase II, which will add an additional 100 MW/ 400 MWh to the facility by August 2021, bringing its total capacity to 400 MW/1600 MWh.

“This is a keystone project and it is important in so many ways – it revitalises an existing power plant site and utilises active transmission lines, enhances grid stability, fills the reliability gap created by intermittent renewables, provides emission-free electricity, supports California’s sustainability goals and mandates, significantly benefits the local community, and ultimately provides affordable electricity to consumers,” said Curt Morgan, chief executive officer of Vistra. 

“A battery system of this size and scale has never been built before. As our country transitions to a clean energy future, batteries will play a pivotal role and the Vistra Moss Landing project will serve as the model for utility-scale battery storage for years to come.”

Housed inside the power plant’s completely refurbished former turbine building and spanning the length of nearly three football fields, Phase I of the battery system can power approximately 225,000 homes during peak electricity pricing periods. The system is made up of more than 4,500 stacked battery racks or cabinets, each containing 22 individual battery modules, which capture excess electricity from the grid, largely during high solar-output hours, and can release the power when energy demand is at its highest and solar electricity is declining, usually early morning and late afternoon.

Phases I and II of the Vistra Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility are backed up by long-term resource adequacy contracts with Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E).

The firms’ Moss Landing site provides a unique opportunity for extensive future expansion of the battery storage system. With its existing infrastructure and the physical space for potential growth, this world-class industrial-zoned site can support up to 1500 MW/ 6000 MWh of storage capacity should market and economic conditions support it. With the development permit already in place and the site in condition for expansion, it will be able to move quickly when that time comes.

California State Senator John Laird said, “as the largest of its kind in the world, the Vistra Zero Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility will store renewable energy, releasing it when it is needed most. It is meaningful, ambitious projects like these that will help to pave the way to a 100 percent clean energy future for California and the rest of the world.”